propstick

plural propsticks · alternative prop-stick · alternative prop stick

1. Any stick or pole used to prop something up.
2. Formerly, a forked stick used to raise the height of a clothesline with wet washing drying on it; a clothesprop.

   When the sun went down she could have seen the assiduous Squeaker lower the new prop-sticks and considerately stoop to gather the pegs his inconsiderate new mate had dropped.

   1902, Barbara Baynton, edited by Sally Krimmer and Alan Lawson, Bush Studies (Portable Australian Authors: Barbara Baynton), St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, published 1980, page 22